More Support for Early Food Introduction and Reduced Allergy Risk

After the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2000 that high-risk infants (those with eczema, other food allergy, or atopic family history) should avoid dairy until age 1 year, egg until age 2, and peanut, nuts, and fish until age 3, the estimated prevalences of food and peanut allergies doubled and tripled, respectively. Now, the available evidence has shifted, supporting the early introduction of allergenic foods. Researchers performed a meta-analysis to shed further light on early food introduction and its association with allergic or autoimmune disease.

Moderate-certainty evidence from five randomized trials involving 1915 participants (at high or normal risk for food allergy) supported an association between early egg introduc…